Leinster Club Championship

[NewEra]

Change of code. How did Cappincur get on today in The Leinster Club championship?

Unlucky in the end not to at least bring it to extra time. Cappincur were down by 4 at HT. Curraha had man sent off after 5 minutes of second half for a second yellow. Cappincur rallied with the last 10 minutes to go and had two great chances at the end, both going wide. Saying all that, Curraha seemed to have a bit left in the tank and would have their full 15 back on the filed if ET had been played so they probably would have edged it.

[mountainman]

Green airfield get the facts correct. Coolderry DId not look for game to be changed.
Don't start putting things up on this site that you hope gets a argument started.

Coolderry did look for it to be played in birr and the county board would hae allowed it but it was turned down by leinster council as birr is not the county ground of offaly.

[mountainman]

Green airfield get the facts correct. Coolderry DId not look for game to be changed.
Don't start putting things up on this site that you hope gets a argument started.

Coolderry did look for it to be played in birr and the county board would have allowed it but it was turned down by leinster council as birr is not the county ground of offaly.

[Truesupporter]

I went to support our county champions today and can tell you that it wouldn't have mattered where the match was played, Coolderry were out- hurled all over the field by a hard working Cuala team who thoroughly deserved their win. Coolderry represented us well in previous years but Cuala hurled better and worked together for the win. The Coolderry keeper also made some great saves to stop it being worse. So sad and depressing that we are back at this racket again, blaming the venue, Birr vs Tullamore instead of admitting the better hurling team won. Was at the match and some Coolderry supporters blamed the venue, the ref and even the stewards!!! Brian Carroll gave a very good interview in the Irish Independent this week and said its time to stop making excuses with Offaly hurling and look to the future. I wish this site would do the same!

[KeshaWantsTimber]

Was in Tullamore today and it further served to highlight the areas where Offaly hurling is struggling. Coolderry tried to compete with Cuala but they lost the vast majority of the tussles for possession and when they did win the ball they proved, just like the Offaly senior team, that they couldn't cope with physicality in the tackle and had no idea how to play against a team using a sweeper. When they tried to handpass or stick pass the ball short their touch just wasn't up to standard and they continuously lost possession. Cuala were fitter, stronger and better organised which ultimately was the difference between the teams.

Well before half time Coolderry sent Joe Brady to full-forward in a move that smacked of desperation rather than being any kind of a tactical ploy. Yes Brady won the county final with a vital goal but lets be honest, he is not fit and he was continuously found out by the pacey running midfield of Cuala and Colm Cronin at centre-forward before being redeployed to the full forward position.

Cuala used team work, could break tackles and played intelligent balls to Sean Treacy and Schutte when possible. They took the ball on the move and were far more incisive than. Their running resulted in fouls as the Coolderry backs hadn't the pace to cope. David Treacy was unerring from the resultant frees. These frees kept the scoreboard ticking over for Cuala while Coolderry struggled to make any inroads into a well organised Cuala backline where Cian O'Callaghan, despite his hurling limitations, and Oisin Gough dominated by playing their hurling on the front foot, always going forward and trying to do the right thing. As the game entered the final ten minutes it became clear that Coolderry were getting no closer and players began to realise this. Cuala kept pressing and tacked on a goal and a number of points.

Brian Carroll's sending off summed up a frustrating day for Coolderry who were a disorganised rabble by the time the game ended.

[Wing Back]

No excuses, Coolderry were given a real lesson today. It was a tough game to watch from my own point of view.......as it highlighted the limitations I had suspected we had. We seemed to get a foot hold in the game during the 1st 10-15 mins where we competed well. But after that Cuala really came to life and settled into a rhythm and really put us to the sword.

I could go into much detail on our performance and where the game was lost and things we could have done differently perhaps to narrow the gap and put more respect on the score board. But in fairness there are no excuses and the better team won.

Best of luck to Cuala and I hope they go on and give Clara a good rattle as Leinster is their for them if they want it.

[timber]

Hard luck to coolderry. A good hurling club. I felt coolderry would struggle badly. They have a very small team particularly in attack. Against a big physical fit team they were always going to struggle especially in horrible conditions like today. And some key men are not as fit as you would like. Squad depth is not good and missing the likes of parlon is hard for them. Some very good hurlers but they needed bigger fitter men in central positions to graft and win the dirty ball.They had no platform without that.

Cuala are a decent outfit. Not outstanding stick men but big physical fit team with momentum. Offaly hurling is well behind unfortunately where the game has shifted to more physical style. where are we going to find 6 footers who can run and play a bit of ball is not a simple task.

[Toxicity234]

Hard luck to Coolderry.
at half time 6 points down with the wind at there back they should have had a great chance. 6 points in nothing in hurling and with that wind if anything it was Coolderry game to lose.
Moving Joe Brady for Centre back to full forward destabilised the whole team.
Cula just started running straight through the middle and Coolderry melted.
Coolderry need to hit long straight ball in on top of Brady if he full forward but that didn't happen. sending slow low ball in front of Brady gives an player with pace a better chance of win it.
8 of Cula second half points can from lads wandering into the centre forward position and picking up easy ball.
Coolderry should be kicking themselves.
There management had a brain fart cause they were 6 points down at half time and they destroyed the whole team structure to try and fix a problem that wasn't there. Showed no faith in his players to sorted out the issue they were having against a huge wind.
Brian Carroll sending off i didn't see. Did anyone see what happened.

On a side note there was a match clock on the scoreboard in OCP yesterday.

Well done to Lusmagh on there great win.

[KeshaWantsTimber]

Hard luck to Coolderry.
at half time 6 points down with the wind at there back they should have had a great chance. 6 points in nothing in hurling and with that wind if anything it was Coolderry game to lose.
Moving Joe Brady for Centre back to full forward destabilised the whole team.
Cula just started running straight through the middle and Coolderry melted.
Coolderry need to hit long straight ball in on top of Brady if he full forward but that didn't happen. sending slow low ball in front of Brady gives an player with pace a better chance of win it.
8 of Cula second half points can from lads wandering into the centre forward position and picking up easy ball.
Coolderry should be kicking themselves.
There management had a brain fart cause they were 6 points down at half time and they destroyed the whole team structure to try and fix a problem that wasn't there. Showed no faith in his players to sorted out the issue they were having against a huge wind.

I'd have to say your analysis is way off here Toxicity. Brady had struck about 2 balls while centre back. Both of these he mishit. Colm Cronin had scored two from play, had been fouled and should have scored a goal, all off Brady. Cuala were running straight through the middle long before Brady was switched. It was the reason he was switched and not the result of the switch.

Now moving Brady didn't solve Coolderry's problems either but leaving him where he was certainly wasn't an option. No matter what type of ball went into Brady at full-forward, the full back and the sweeper had the beating of him due to their strength and mobility. Coolderry were 6 points down after playing against the wind but they were losing almost every 50/50 and were making little or no impact in the forward line. The game certainly wasn't there's for the taking as they were being outfought and outhurled all over the pitch. This continued in the 2nd half when Cuala more than doubled their half time advantage showing they were even more dominant against the wind than they were with it.

[SearingDrive]

Coolderry were beaten by the better team yesterday, no excuses.

[Lone Shark]

Sunday's game was hugely disappointing and certainly it's hard to imagine that any tactical switches one way or another might have altered the result, since Cuala were just so superior in so many facets of the game. Not for the first time, an Offaly team got absolutely crucified in the rucks, of which there were plenty given the conditions.

That leads me on to a follow on question - is there a "best practice" for training players as to how to succeed in these scrambles, or is it as simple as the player that goes in with the most aggression and the least fear tends to win more often than not? I've asked this question of people who'd be involved in coaching before, and I've yet to speak to anyone who has developed a clear strategy in terms of how to set his team up to prevail in these battles.

[keyboardwarrior]

Personally I think rucks involving over 4 players should be done away with. They don’t suit a game were a small ball is on the ground and players are expected to take possession using a stick (with 6 players either falling in on top of him or careering in on him). It’s especially irritating to watch at this time of the year. I’ve careered into rucks as a fifth man on a hurling field myself knowing I am bringing nothing to the party but more mayhem!

I don’t know how this could be achieved within the rules as it is something which would be difficult to call given the speed and conditioning of players at high level. Ideally you would want to restore the 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 contests so that would mean the fifth lad joining would be punished (like a third lad joining a fight). For the ref to call a throw in (which sometimes happens now) when the 5th man joined wouldn't work as a rule as it would be taken advantage of as a means to break down an attack.

I don’t think it would be that ungovernable. It may rely on the ref being up with the play to shout ‘ruck’ (which wouldn't work in most levels of hurling where the ref struggles to keep up with the play). One for a trial introduction in the NHL possibly …

Which leads me on to my belief that at county level there is a case for two refs on the field such is the trickery and advantage-talking that goes on which a ref can’t possibly police. Pro AFL matches have 3 ‘field umpires’ and some amateur games can also have up to 3 field umpires and you are only dealing with boot and ball there.

As for a refs buddy from the club with a 23 stone waistline who’s expected to call a sliotar travelling 120 kmh in the blinding sun in an July day in O’Connor park …..

LS Franny Forde was a good man to introduce 'ruck' drills into his coaching since his time in Joe Dooleys team. Essentially it involved jostling and 'arseing' by the big lads with a lad with a lower centre of gravity arriving late to gain possession. If you think about it Tommy Walshe and Richie Hogan have emerged from plenty of rucks in possession .

[Bord na Mona man]

I think the key is not to commit too many men to rucks. You don't have to win them all. Simply making the opposition struggle to find the pass is enough most of the time.
More important is to have supporting players finding good positions surrounding the rucks to receive the break out pass.

Kilkenny are kings of having a couple of spare men ghost into space a few yards away to provide an outlet. I suspect that it's a some sort of practiced system where if their man in the ruck is a right-handed and handpasses with his left, the spare men move to the low risk 1 o'clock and higher risk 3 o'clock slots outside the ruck. Basically so the man under pressure is not having to try and see where his colleagues are and make completely blue-sky decisions. If it's a tight ruck with the ball unlikely to get projected out far, then someone will try and sweep closer to the fringes and they'll try and push, sweep, kick the ball out a particular side.

Offaly teams have a tendency to have everyone within 20 metres pile in as if their lives depend on the turnover. You might win a few by outswarming, but it's hard to sustain for any length of time. Also, chances are you're leaving men unmarked for the easy counter attack.

[sam88885a]

Sunday was disappointment but there was always a danger of that happening to an Old coolderry team .Coolderry saw a chance to win the county final and they grabbed it but its a different level outside the county , your up against county champions .I think its just behind inter county standard nowadays .Coolderry are gone pass that but those guys owe no one anything ,lots of them have 4 county titles and a lenster .
I dont agree that all offaly are poor in rucks .I think kk were brilliant especially in 2012 . D kilmartain and Conor mahon were unstopable in rucks most days .

[llkj]

Committing to rucks, outswarming, break out passes, blue sky decisions, turnovers - please, we've had enough of this during the rugby World Cup for one year.